I for one would ask for certain things over and over as well as other people I know and not be able to get it where I lived. That’s why I developed the custom of going where I could get what I want.
In the South Philly neighborhood where I work, there is a large concentration of whites on welfare as well as Asians; yet the shopping in that area is much more varied than used to be here.
That area of the city is also the only Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target that I know of within the city.
No, it wouldn’t surprise me if you are asked the same question, but I find it an intrusion just as when I would be at parties here in UC I would be the only person asked if I lived in the neighborhood and then if I owned property or rented it. I still think it’s rather a loaded question.
It will be interesting to compare Fresh Grocer when it opens at 56th & Chestnut Sts. to the one on 40th and Walnut Sts.
Regards,
Wilma
On 1/22/04 10:52 AM, "Knight, Sandra (US - Philadelphia)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I would be ultra rich if I had a nickel for each time I run into someone from work at a store out in the suburbs and they ask me, “What are YOU doing here?” or “You come ALL the way out here to shop?”
Wilma, would it surprise you to know that I have been asked that same question?
I wonder why when you first moved back into the area sour cream was unavailable and with “gentrification” it suddenly appears?
that's pretty easy. if nobody asks for it, it will never appear. that goes for caffeine-free, diet soda and Lactaid milk as well. enough customer base makes it profitable to find more than one distributor or simply change distributors.
As you well know, it's not a question of skin color but degree of poverty that dictates these food preferences. sour cream wasn't commonly available in Fishtown either during the late 70s and early 80s. I learned that if I wanted the food I liked I would have to go somewhere where the socio-economic continuum was different from my neighborhood.
Especially when I lived and shopped near 36th & Haverford and Germantown and Tioga. The cashier always alerted me that my butter had no salt. She would say, "that's sweet cream butter. Are you sure you want that?" To which I would reply, "Is there something wrong with it?" "Well," she would say incredulously, "it doesn't have any salt!" We had this conversation the entire two years I lived in Powelton Village and shopped at 36th & Haverford.
The smell of ammonia and Pine-Sol at Germantown & Tioga gave me sinus headaches. Collard greens piled high. Forget mesclun or even romaine. It used to really piss me off when I would see the condition of the vegetables because I knew the poor, inner city markets, as opposed to the inner city in Society Hill, were ALWAYS given the dregs.
hope this enlightens you
Sande Knight
tel. 215-246-2424
fax 215-405-3178
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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